so happy – Huffy is nesting in my garden
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Huffy, my most frequent visitor and the only one I can distinguish from the rest – was nest building tonight – doing a lot of rustling (in between giving himself a good scratch). But couldn’t see him, but then a while later, he came out from where he had been rustling, went to the feeding station, had a little drink, and then I saw him go into a pile of leaves at the far end of my side garden, but not too far from the feeding station.
Before tonight, he goes into the back garden (which belongs to the guy upstairs) and then I don’t know where after that, all the other hedgehogs come and go in that direction too, but Huffy has decided to nest closer to his food.
I think he’s decided that it’s his feeding station, as he head butts any other hedgehogs that come near it.
Tonight and last night there has been two hedgehogs in the feeding station at the same time – tonight there was a bit of headbutting going on (but wasn’t Huffy) – and then the previous night it was Huffy, and I think a female friend, as I didn’t witness any arguments.
I thought last week that someone had marked Huffy with white paint, but I tried to look closer tonight (put on my glasses) and it’s just where the light hits the back of him, sometimes, depending on the light, some of his spines look lighter. But when he came out of the feeding station, I could see that his spines are ok and the colour they are supposed to be – so I’m relieved about that.
I hope he stays in his new nest for a bit – but I know they move around a lot during the summer.
well no I’m not sure – but he had a good session of biffing another hedgehog the other week, over food, so I thought that’s what the males do – unless the females do it too? do you know?
I crept over quietly on Friday afternoon, and gently put some straw by the entrance to see if he/she would take it in for extra bedding to keep warm, and bless him, he’s not taken it in, but he’s made a little hole in the straw where he comes in and out, it’s a tiny hole , – so I don’t feel as bad now for only having a 4inch hole in my feeding station (instead of the recommended 5inch).
During the week he spent all night making a lot of noise, and I wondered then if he was making a nest, I thought I could hear him make a scratching noise, I thought that he might have had fleas, but I haven’t noticed him scratch himself before. I see the hedgehogs give themselves in a little scratch quiet regularly, but this scratching was going on all night – and then later in the night I did see him go in to a pile of brash, the next morning I saw the hole he’d made, so the scratching must have been that – I’ve not heard him do that since, and I’ve seen him quite a bit, going in and out of the feeding station. He’s gonna end up obese! But I seem to be getting more and more hedgehogs, but I can distinguish Huffy as he comes in a few times every night – and he never stops huffing, however he stopped huffing when he was busy making a lot of noise, building his nest.
Now I think the scratching noise was actually when he might have been making the hole, do they dig with their paws?
I’d love to see a youtube clip of a hedgehog making a hole.
Hi Hedgie Lover
Females will occasionally give a fairly small biff (more like an irritated nudge, really) but in my experience, nothing like the biffing that goes on amongst the males. So if Huffy has been indulging in major biffing sessions, sounds like he most likely is a he!
The reason I asked, is that I wouldn’t have expected a male to build a very elaborate nest at this time of the year, although with the strange weather we’ve been having, maybe he thinks it’s autumn already! But I have heard males making a lot of scratching noises in hog boxes, with not necessarily a lot of bedding. Maybe getting it just how they like it! That sounded more like scratching on the floor than scratching themselves, which is a different sound. He may also be practising for building a hibernation nest.
You know so much about hedgehogs.
I think there are some females that visit the feeding station, I had 3 in all at the same time last night – and there is often some very mild biffing going on – just a little push – but Huffy was really going for it one night, that’s when I assumed he was a male.
Unfortunately, no-one has been near my hedgehog home, I realise now I’ve put it in the wrong place.
I haven’t seen much of Huffy lately, but I think I keep missing him as I can’t spend all night sat outside – but now, I have a constant stream of visitors all throughout the night – I haven’t a clue how many of them are – and the little hedgehogs, a few months ago, have grown – I saw a fairly small one last night – they are either different hedgehogs – or they are the small ones that have grown .
Two months ago, I’d be lucky to see one hedgehog a night, now every night – I will see at least two in the feeding station at the same time.
Eventually, I might work out who’s who, because they are in different sizes, it’s only Huffy I recognise for now.
As I’ve not seen him, I don’t know if he’s moved on, I might put some straw near his entrance again and see if it gets flattened down by him.
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